Dans mon trav~il nti'tique el textuei. je m'effon:e dan, touleiii mesure du possible de clarifier 13correlation entre les socie~• haute technolo~ie et !'apparition de conditions de vieprecaires. Un de me, principaux buts e,t d'amener itreconn.ilrt que les causes et les solutions ne se situent pastoujours ~ .illeurs •.

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I. Uno ""' pl"""I.",~... 1.,,,.,,.1, ..., .... <'.. ,I.f_ do., <I~.'1,,,,,,,,,,", 'P"~"'"",Hi, ~u','..,fi," ....d· ,.d'",,_ r.-.11 oI'hl ",",I, I..m I ln._r.. >«o,d, T..r to

'"'" I.... " ,",,,I... n.dId>ion oI'heI<IIe..... oollqu • ...."1.... ",., •• ,ell.d'.mnk~"'." I..!>till",,"'•.'- _ .....Il~...on! .'.illcur. pou'"pl."," ~.bill"'",,_, .... m.... '" d,,""'b_ "" do ~"'''.'-' ,-""ru"",," ..P""'to ..... ", ..... 1.

Eu,"pb, Ursula Bicm.1nn& Angol. Sanders.ao mn, 200).

Traduildcl"nglili "U Frank Strudtill:.

",. H.M.lh AI'nOt,.....,~ TtIoJ.q in ""',~ !lidi.Hubo"",,,- ,...,.,. .......""', 1"'-';" Edlt.... do:Minui<'00)1, p.~6-47'

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con~""" no. =""'""

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H.n...h"',."d~ I.< """"'~_..,;" " .

DiIIlSIe contexte oil nous vivons, celli de Beyroutb,une ville qui a connu une guerre dvile de plus de quin2e ans.notre d~maTCbeartistique probl~rnatise les enj""" de l'imageet du documem. et pose ~videmm~nt la question de larepresentation de I. guerre, de I. memoire et de I'Histoire.Nous esaayons de trouver une fa~on. ni metapborique, nisymbolique, ni .. b~roique ". de ren<lre (om pte de la ¢tiooede I. guerre el d'une partie de notre experience presente sansenver non plus clans un processus d'accumulation de preuvesqui mme souven! a leur banaJisation 1'1.""rier de Ia guerre, ou comme on Ie dil parfo;s des guerreslibanatses. ne s'apparente pas uniquement au devoir de

Hlels des ~sis dans Ie deserl'MJoana Hodii'homas, Kh.lil r... igo

I...) like oases in tbe desert ...

"If "ollrutJ,...... ""II., I•• " fi"d momen" o['ruth,.nd ,h.", mo""'.".r< inf"'" Ih, anI-;,hin! ... h••, '" try

'" "",bfilil 10m, ord.,.ln 1M,cItoo. ofho"",,. Tft.o .. mom,""om. ""UJK<lu1/o;. lik<<),"," in 'h, .1__ . Thoy.... """"d.,","nd i. ,h,i, "",.ill' 'Io.jo ",,,,,I ",loa, .11'hio ;, about."

Honn.h Ar.nd~ Au","""" on TriQ/II)·

In the context where we live, Ihal of Beirul, a city thathas e.perienced more than fifteen years of civilwar, oul artisticapproach examines issues surrounding the photographic imageand the document, .nd natu,ally raises the question of the"'presentation of war. of memo')' .nd of Histo')'.Weare t')'ing to find a wayof talking about the war and of a partof our present rucperience,a way that is neither metaphorical,symbolic or "heroic," and without getting into a process ofcollecting evidence, which often makes the faCls banal.I'1To ",Ik about the Lebanese war, or wars, as people sometimess"Y,is nO!just a matte, of the duty to remember but also hilStodo with the questioning of HiS!oryand the difficultyof writing it

memoire mais surtout au questionnement de I·Histo;r .. et'Ia difficult~ de I·ecrire.Ce que nou. prociui.on. pose con.tammem de, que.tionsIi"",,;' noire engaGement. 11 notre positionnement.

Oepuis un moment, nOus lT~v.illons Sur un projet in!itul&Wonder Beiru! UIaUlour des images d'un photographe du nomde Abdallah Farah que nous avon. ,encontr/' au debul desann;",s quau.._vinGt-<lixet dOlllla denlllIch .. fait etr:lnGementecho ala nOire.En 1968 el 1969. Abdallah Farah a edite une serie de carte.postales de Beyrouth. Ces images montraient Ie. plu. beauxet Ie. plus mooemes des sites touristiques de la ville.la ruedes banques.les cinemas.ie. ""uks.le. hlltels, les plages.lesnouvelles infrastructures.les monuments de I. ville et sessrands axes.._l:absurdite de Ia situation lib.maise "eIIl que ces cartes jXlStalessoient aujourd'hui enCOre en vente dans Ie. I;brairie.beyrouthine. bien que les monuments N les lieu_..qU'ellesreprkentent .ient ete Mtruits pour Ia plupart.

What we produce is constantly asking questions about ourengagement. Our position.

For some time now. we ha." been working on a proie~tentitled Wond., B.irutUi using images by Abdallah Farah, aphotographr we met in the "arly 1990S whose approachstrangely echoes our own,In 1968 and 1969, Farah published" series of postcards ofBeilut showing the dty's outstanding and mQ1;tmodern touristspots: the street full of banks. the cinemas. suqs, hotels andbeaches, the new infrastructure, the local monuments and themain Ihoroughf.res.Such is the absurdity of the situation In Lebanon that thesepost~ards are stH!on sale today in Beirut bookshops whenmosl of the monument, and sites they represent have beendestroyed.At the start of the war. in summer 1975,besleged and iMadedby comb.tants from one side and then Ihe olhel, the WahedStudiO, where Abdallah worked. was destroyed and burneddown. He managed to sal_age a bit of photography equipment

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Au debut de I" guerre, en <!t~ 1975. assi~ge el e.tvahi.uccessivemcnt pJT des combauants de differet.llS bords.lesmdie waited oil !r.IvallleAbdallah Farah est detruil puis bnJle.Abdallah rhtssil ~ sauver un peu du maleri..t de prise de ",-,e.une partie de ses neg;ttifs dont ceUXdes cartes pastilles et descentaines de pellicules vierges. non encore impressionn",,".Dew: mois plus cud. Alxbllah Olmmence~~OfCr les n/ogatiJi;de sescartes postaIes.;, Ies brUlerpetit.l.Jl'"IiI, oommes'U chercilaita tes remire ccnformes ~""n pre.enlll imi", airu;il... destructionsdes bitlm""ts qui disp.raissent progress ivement ""US scs yeux.atteints par I", bombardements et lcs bataiUesde rue. II Ie faitd'aoord de fa~on Ires organisl!e et Ires document;"', 1I sui! IJIIajectoire des hombardements el Mtruit en fcncricn dESevimements du jour. JI date touiours les impacts d·obus. ientedecte<:elerleur prcwen.ance,consigne tout celadans un pmt cametNus ta,d. il se prend "U jeu et inflige. parfois de maniereaccidentelle ou volontaire, de nom,dlES destructions, lrtf<iites.it ces m~mes bltiments.Quand Abdallah linit de bruler tOUles ses images, I. paixofficielle est ins",ur;", a B"l'routh.,

\

and some ofthis negatill~s,including the ones for the postcards,and hundreds of rolls of unused film.Two month, later,Abdallah started damaging the negatives forhis postcards, burning them bil by bit as ifas if seeking a wayto have their states conform to his present. He was thusimitating the destruction of the buildings that he saw graduallydisapP"aring in all the bombardments and street fighting. AIfirst he did this in a very organised. documented way,followingthe trajectory of the bombardments and deWoying things inkeeping with the e"ents of the day. He always dated the shellimpacts, tried to ~nd their origin and noted it all down in aliule book,Later, though. he got carried away and begin inflicting furtherdamage on those same buildinGS, either aCCidentally ordeliberately,When Abdallah had finished burning all his images, peace wasofficiallyagreed in Beirut.These damaged images often look like new photOGraphswhosemaking was part chance or accident. The traces offo,e and lightseem to recreate an indexical link. They have now bun

Ces image, deteriorees apparaissem comme de nouvellesphotographies conlenant une pan de hasard et d'accident,recreant par la Ir:Ice du feu '" de lalumi~e un rapport indiciel.Elles sont d®rmais 6ciitees. II notre iniliative mais avee sonaccord, sous forme de nouvelles canes postales, des canespostaleg de guerre '.1. A travers l'e<!ition et 10 diffuSion dansdifl'en.nts Ueux. nous lentons de propager ce travail er de IU'tercontre Ie mouvement qui me' la gnerre enue parenthes~ etqui n'lnscrit que trh peu (si ce n'~1 pas du tout] Ie conflitli!x<na;s dans son histoire contempor:tine. prH~r.mt idr!aliserIe passe "t.., projeter dans un rowr fantasm~.

Depuis les ann"", de guerre 0\0 Abdallah P.lrah ~l:Iil souventIIcourt de produllS, de fix.J.!euret surtoutde papler, il. contrad~I'habitude de ne plus developper ses im"g", Ului suffit de legprendre. U!:s bobines s'accumulent sans besoin d'~tre rev.!:lo!es.Meme s'il ne developpe pas ses images, il note par contrechaque photogr:tphie qu'il prend dans un camel. Jl la d<'critminutieusemenl sea imag .. sedonnent donca lire, laissantIlb'e cours ~ I'imagination du lecteur. !l nomme ce travail

published at our initiative, but with his agreement, as a newset of postcards: war PO",C3ldslli. Bypublishing and distributingthese images to various outlets we are trying to publiclse thework and fight against the movement ,h.t puts the war inbrackets and Indudes the Leba""". conRict only very marginally(if at olll in its (ontemporary history, preferring instead toidea lise the past and project its~lf into a fantasy future.

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•. """"'" SO"",'w:"..... """"' •. A .. oyoftSp<><t<>"'" lint prl,",," brZKM 11Wto"""1 !h'D brleQu>_= __'" <rn"""rQuimp<t,

~ "'" Al>d.olloh fuoh.det<ript!orco of~pho..r< _""_.w."""' ....Iibo",or'"ru~ri"S......

During the war years, when he often found him.elf .hon of doorripliono ,lid ,Imp\rmaterials. products and fixatives .nd, above all. paper, Abdallah :~;;;:.~~';.'!;'got into the habit of not developing his photos. It was enough writillj! ..... cIIffioul, '"

simply to take them, The rolls accumulated but theirconlents ~,J.~,~~I" oo~'~"ru ~ ... uon&!

did not need to be revealed. !h.lmoll<foo """","",nr""'11<'.....to bopll>bi,....oc_But while he did nOI develop his images. he did note each

photograph he took In a book, complete with a detaileddescription. His Images could thus be read. leaving the re.derfree to im~gine them. Abdallah called this work "the inviSibleimage," or "the image in the text." a term to which we pleferthat of "latent image. "1sI~1

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!'>rio ,momRj tho:<Up"" ...... of .... ""I'<,,h ... who,..,. "mp~itt(>.,)'" of th, pboIosr.ophlt"" >nd ...... """.. ntid<1 tho!. If I. b "'", .... 10:0 "r .... ,b!,"'-- in,"mol.. in. Ioftot "'''.onlrn>s<do<o"," """'-Sine,no",mpro",;"<WId be Fi>unol. bo .....mudtolf~"lilt"" ....ridkulou,t>«I"" ,bo, borrn-l., M' hb d"",ond ,,"_ndl"idtboormm'~,

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« j'i11lllgeinvisible ~, ou entore., I'image dans Ie text,,~.termeauquel nOUSp~f<!rons celui d'., imase latente (!J6,~.

Pour nous, 10 question fondamentale que pose Ia d~marchede Abdallah est ceue des conditions d'apparition ou plutO! derevelation de ces images. ces conditions ser:tient..,lIe:s Ii.......IIAbdallah Farah lui·m<!me. ~ I'~\at du pays. de l'arl? Enpt'rpetuantl'acte photographique m"is en soustray.mt sonr~sultat du (hue de « sa consommation ". Ie lravail duphoto@raphe esl ,ymptomatique d'un nouveau rapport 3I·im'ge. A quel moment el pourquoi Abdallah ""r:th pourrait_i1 declder de developpt'f!reS pt'llicules, de livrer 3 I. lumiereses image'? I.e fera-t-il un jour? Certaines de ces imagesser.ient datees de plusieurs anno!es. Comment s'operer:t celteredkouverte? tilA quel moment. I'image en latence peut ~.oluer aples Ie., do!-saSITe. que nous avans vku? Dans son livre Dislrocttd,Jalal Toufic estime que « I" substitution d.. photographies deAbdallah Farah par des descriptions t""tuelle, est Ii~nOnseulement 3 la problbnatique des mots et des images dans

"For us, the fundamental question raised by Abdallah's

approach is Ihat of the conditions for the appearance 01, ramer,revelation ofimaces. Might these conditions be linked toAbdallah himself, to the state of the country or of an? In thatit pt'rpt'tuates the photographic act while withholding its resultfrom the fI~.of "its consumption." the work of thiSphotographer Is symplomatic of a new relation to the image.At what moment and whyWOtJldAbdallah now decide to develophis films. to expose his images to light? Will he ever do solSome o(these image, are several years old. What form willthis rediscovery takel[',At what moment can the lalent image evolve, after the "disaste~'we have lived through? In his book Di$lrQ<ud. lalal Touficconsiders ,hat "the substitution of textual descriptions for thephotograph, is related not only to the ploblematic lelation ofwords to Imac.,. in audio-visual works but also to the withdrawalof many Images past a surpassing disaster." For him, the factIhat Abdallah Farah describes ~is photographs with such precisionin a notebook already constitutes an intermediary path "whichcan be cOrl,idered a contribution to the resurrection of what has

des travaux audiooisuels mais aus5i au retrait de beaucoupd'images apr~ un incommensurable dkastre~. Pour lui. lefait que Abdallah roah db:rive res photographi". de fa,on siprm"e dans un cahler constitue d~j:' une voie imermCdiaire.. qui peut eIre con.ider~ cmnme un" contribution ~ laresurrection de ce qui a ele retire, suite:' I'incommensurabledesastre. I:effet voulu par Ie travail de celui qui tente dere!Susciler la tradition apres un incommensuable desaslren'esl pas au fond tarn sur l'audienc", sauf de fa~on indirecteque Sur I'oeuvre d'art eUe--meme, en VIlede la ressusciter IS).,.

Nous semmes dans cet ~tat d'esprit quand nous recevcnsun .·mal/ qui nous annonce que le n mal 1000. une copiede notre premier long metr.lge de ~ction Aulo", <k W"'G~IIrOSll~1a et~ vol~ au Yemen ou Ie ftlm etait montre. C'etait unjour historique, Ie iour du dixieme .nniversaire de larCIlIlilkation du Sud el du Nord du pays.Nous semmes !res surpris par cet evceemeu: nous faisonsdes films dans uue partie du monde qui se soucie peu deduema et qui n'eucourage pas vraiment I'imase si ce n'est

•been withdrawn by the surpa5Sing disaster, The intended effectof the work of one trying to resum~ct tradition past the surpassingdi~aster is fundamentally not on the audience. except indirectly;it is on the work of an- to ",surrect it. "III

This is the state of mind w~were in when we received an e·mail telling us that on n May eeoc a copy of our forst nctionfeature. AulCur de IQ "'''ison rt)so,(91h.d been stolen in Yemen,whe,e it was being .hown. It was a historic date, e~actly tenyears on from the reunification of the nonhern and southernpans ofthe country,We were greatly surprised by this event we make films in apart of the world that takes little interest in cinema and doesn'treally encourage image.making, e~cept on behalf of power andofficial propaganda. Who in Yemen could have been interestedenough in Our f.rst feature Aim to steal a print?We decided to go looking for that lost print and to folm thepeecess of this search as a pretnt for going to a country aboutwhich we knew nOlhing, and a way of questioning our statusas image.make .. In that p.n of the world,

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tl.looW T""6,,,0;_.>nO.,j_1""01<01.,.CA: Th"ml>oPtooo. "OIlil. ?, 88.

~ oil 110]/1'1;," .....r""",nd 'ht !'in.Ho",'I, r""",, mOl by1""'-' Itodjilhom>l "'"Kh.m _go. J5 mm, 9'.. I"u, ... 'W9,

ceUe du pouvoir eIde la prop.gande offidelle. Qui, au Y~men,a pu s';nteresser ;I. notre premier Ions metrase au point d'envoler I.copie?NollS d&idons de partir ~ la recherche de la copie perdue etd'en fatrc un film, un pretexte pour se ",nd,,, d.tns uo paysdont nOus nc ccnnaissons rien, une maniere de qucstionnernOire statut de faiscurs d 'images dans cene partie du monde.Nous suivons predsement les traces de noire copie, Nousvisiulns les salles de cinema ou le 6lm a ele proiet~. it Sana'aau Nord puis ~ Aden au Sud, Nous suivons Ie trajet du busdans lequel I. ccpte du Illm " voyage ~n baga~e nonaccompagn~ Ie zz mai zooo, C'est dans ce bus !'I.'montant deAden vera SanTI':>que la copie (cinq bobines de sept kilosellacune). mysterieusementdisparu.

Curieuse disparition dans un pays peu ;nleresse par Iecinema. te Nord du Yemen, islamique. ne ,'en est jamals""cup<. I.e Sud, lcngtemps marxiste, a aiM II la productionde quelques dorumentaires jusqu'lIla reunification d"" deuxYemen en 1990, Depuis, la production cin~matographiques'est Complelement interrompue. Les salles de cinema .

We follOW<!dthe tracks of Our print ~ery precisely. We went tothe cinemas where the film was shown, to Sana'. in the Northand then Aden in Ihe South. We followed the ro~te oftne buson which the print oftne film travelled as unaccompaniedbaggage on 22 May 2000. It was on this bus. going up fromAden to Sana'a. that the print (five reels, each about sevenkilos) mysteriously disappeared,Curious. thiS disappearance in a country where cinema countsfor so little. Northern Yemen, which is Islamic, never took aninterest, The South, which for m.ny years was Marxist, did helpprod~ce a few drxumentaries, up until the reunification ofthetwo Yemens in t990. Since then. film production has tot.llydried up. The cinemas, showing mainly Indian nr Americanmms, are slowly decaying, dosing up one by one.tn the course of our search we became aware of a rathe,ambig~ous ",Iation to the image. and above all to photography,There is an obvious instrumentalisation of the image for politicalpurpose., as in the propasanda images of the president of theRepublic of Yemen, AliAbdallah Saleh. This monopoly preventsthe appea,ance of any other kind nfimage (or power). But we

diffusant principalemcm des films indiens ou amerit.1ins,sont dbormais dans un lent pm<:I!SSUSde dkadence et f"rmenlleurs portes les unes i la suite des autres.Au cours de notre recherche. un certain rapport ambigu ~I'image et surtout ~ la photographie nouS est apparu. Uneinstrumentalisation de I'image a des fins pohliques est bridenm.ccmme les images de propagande autour de la p"rsonnalitedu president de la Republique y"m~nitc. Ali Abdallah Saleh.Ce monopole empkile toute apparition d'une autre image(d'un aUIIe pouvoir), Mais un autre genre d'image est venuncus surprendre, un processus et un mode de fabrit.1tion quirenV<lie11une pratique populaire. Les photographes, aussibien dans leur.tudio que surles places publiques. "",""n:hentun cill". magiquc .. de la n>pri!l;en",tion ; ils divisent I'imageen deux parties aUmoment de Ia prise de vue, dr!doublent leursuje\ dans Ia m~me image "t peuvent inm,sterchacun dansIe do!corqu'il desire: Sidney. New York. Bombay OUaUIIe... II,donnent leurs rregatifs en meme temp' que leurs images san,vraimenl garder de lrace de leur Il'avail. :. peine quclquesproll>types. quelques ""","pies de leurs im.-.ges doubles qui

se jouent de I'espa(e. de l'insaiption temporeile. de I~memoin>ou de )'oubli. t:image pholographique tr:Insforme ses enjeux,ses attributs et penurbe notre perception du rapport au reel.Durant notre voyage, notre confrontation:' des situations"","otiques ... les moments de do!calage.les peurs par rapport ~Ia reproduction d'attitudes orien.talislffinous ont menes,; certainsquestionll","ents. Eire de Ia region. Nrc arnbe aurait do peut.eire MUS premunir du danger de ce • voyageen Orient .. nuisleschoses sent toujouni piusrompliquees, .. En panant au Yemen.1l0US volliions r~nechir a notre culture. eprou~r Ie myth .. de Ianation ambe, de cette communau~utopiqueque nous necessonsd';nvoquerromme prcmesse de moments meilleurs.De pius. nous tenlons de trcuver un nouveau lerriloire dereflexionou nous chcrchons ~ nous roconrulltreen revendiquanlun trnvailhistoricise qui se fult,; I·int~rieur. in siru. Notre travailtente de d~limiter les conditions de notre appanenance etIl.eme de notre existence. Letravail d'Edward Said autour deI'oricn",]isme. qui a ouvert Ade' gb1hations une possibililecritique nouvelle, a nOlllmmenl rontribue ~donner au regardoccidenl<llunc importance d~mt".iurCeen en faisanlle principal

" "were also surprised to find another kind ofimage. a process anda mode of production that rele.. back to popular practice: bOlhin their studio and on public sites. these photographers look forthe "magiol" side of representation, dividing the image intotwo parts when Ihe shot is laken, duplicaling the SUbjK' in asingle image and able to insert the person into whatever settingthey de,i,e: Sydney, New 'fork. Bombay, or whatever. They giveaway their negatives at the same time as Iheir prints. withoulre.lly keeping a trace of their work. Orat least nOmore Ihan afewprototypes, a fewexamples oflhese double imag..- thai playwilh space, with placing in time. wilh memory and forgetting.Th" pholographic image transforms its issues and Its attribut..-and disrupts our perceplion of the relation to the re.l,In the course of our journey, the confrontation with v• .-lous"exotic" situations, the moments of discrepancy and our fea..about reproducing Orlental"t attiludes .11prom pled us to askcertain questions. The ract that we come from Ihe region andare Arabs Should perhaps have protected us from Ihis dangerof the "Journey to the Orient" syndrome, bul things are .Iwaysmore complicated than thaI. Going to Yemen, we wanled to

think about our culture. 10 test the myth of the Arab nation,of Ihat utopian community thai ~ are con,tantly invoking asa promise of belter times.Moreover. ~ are trying to find a m,w field of renedion that istrue to us by arguing for historlcised walk that is done f,omthe interior, in ,,·[u. Our work tries to delimillhe condilions ofOur belonging, and even of our e>eistence.Edward Said's workon Orientallsm, which opened up a new critical approach forwhole generations. helped make the WeSlern view of thingsexcessively important by establishing it as the main"interlocutor." In doing Ihis. by being too busy swdying Wesleminlerprelations of the Orient, this critique misses out on theartistic work done In the Arab world, local work which is notmade In relation 10 "the .merior,"Weare from a region where ills not a~)'S easy to make images_ or. rather. 10 show images. Of course. no image is innocent.whereverlhe place it comes from, or speaks about. The maindifficulty is due to the fact Ihat, as image·makers, we have 10fight nOllO be instrumenlalised and reduced to slmplifiCillions.Ourwork is constantly measuring Ihis possible risk, thiSbreach.

• inlerlocureur •. Ce faisonl, eetle erilique. lrap oceupe., A,;rudier 01 11se mefier de. inr"'preLltions occidenlales Surl'Onenl, faill'economie de ttava,_",artistiques du monde a",be,des tnvaux localise.;, qui ne I",.aillent pas dans la perspectivede ~ I'ext,;neur ».

Now; .ppartenons 11une region 010il n'est pas toujours ais~de faire de, imagE'!;ou plurat d'~meltre des images. Bien siir,aueune image n'esl innocent. quelque soil Ie lieu dont elleprovienlou qu'elle r"nseigne. La principaJe difficull,; '!ienl dufait qu·.,n !:Int que faiseur, d';mages, nous nOuSbattons pourne pas etre instrumentali,,", ., reduils ~ une vision<implificotrice. No, travaux mesurent constanunent ce risqueposoible. celte brtdte ...En outre, nous venous de pays 010les gou;'ernement. 50ntrarement Hberaux. 010 13 Censure sevit et nous menace, 010 lesfanatism", ",ligieux. cnmmunautaires, Ie feodalisme samumtinuellement Acombattre. Comment reno!-tc,~Ia dans nZY;tnvaux ,.,,5 faire Ie jeu de <ertaine, opinions ocddent:llesprompt"" 3UX simplifications et aux possibles justificationsd'une politique etTang""'?

"Mor"""er, we are from countries whose gove,nmem, a", rarefyliberal, where censo,.hip is 2ctiv. and a Ihreat 10 us. whereone Is constantly having to fight religious a~d communityfanaticism and feudalism, How are we to refiect this in ou'worlo without playing Into the hands of certain bodies of opinionin the West eager to simplilY the truth and thus justilY certainkinds of foreign policy?In spile of the biographical orientation of Our document.T}'project. the location and specificity of our research, theapprehension remained.On top of these debates and nesilation,. the events ofSeptember 11, 2001 made a ,eco~d journey 10 Yemen 10

COmplele Our research that much more difficult.The project wa. abandon...:l. The prOduclion SlOpped.Bullne project WQuldn'llet u. go. We hung on and decid...:l towork alone, using 'he references and scant images we broughlback from Yemen the fi,., time. This idea impelled us 10 t"/ toget b"'lond Ihe latency of ,orne of our photo,.litile by lillie, i~deed. this absence itself became the film's.ubject and Ihe fogur", oflalency became those of the work,too)

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M.IBre Ie biais biogrophique de notre projet dccumentaire.la localisation de la recherche ot Sa specificite. une'pp",hension persiste,Pns dans ces Mb.ts et ces Moilations. surviennent alors lesall('T1latsdu n .eprembre ~OOIqui rendent plus difficile uns"",,ond voyage au Y~mcn pour lermin~ notre recherche. I.eprajet tOmbe, I'eau, La production s·,rrere.Mai. Monnamment.le projel revient MUS hanter. Nous nOUS",aachen. ot nous decidon. de tr"""iller seuls ~ p.rtir de nosre¢roges el du peu d'imagE'!; que nous avons roppon~ duY~men. Cell" ido!<:nous pousse" vouloir d~passer la la\encede cemines de nos images.Petit a perit. cetle absence meme devient Ie sujct du film, Ie.figures de 10 I.rence devie~ncnt ceUes du trav.liII"I.Celie decision transforme notre trav.iI en film sur Ie film quenouS n'avons pas pu faire sur u film p<rdu 1'1).On ne peut manter que nos ",¢rages et nous devons 1I0US

contenter de cela. On etudie alors nos prop",. images pourred!ercher dans ces documents quelque chose qui nou ••ech;opp;. une part non epuisable. surprenallte. J.:image ;ndidclle

"Thi. decision lransformed Ourwork into. film aboll' tne filmwe weren'l able to make about "The Lost Film."!")All we could show was our initial footage. We had 10 make dowith tI1al So we .tudied aur 0_ image •. looking for somethingIhat might h ... eScaped us, somelhlng in.,h.uSlible,surprising, The ind.,leal image became our working space,"the ge.J .hift into fiction." If only be<:ause of its Fragment.T}'appearance, tI1i. narrative ~nainly cannot dalm to be complere.!Ican progress and develop only by means of gaps, emptiness,losses. fragmen" and fragmenlation.Through these figures. we are tT}'ing10 show what we wereunable to capture. 10 reconstitule or revive those mi.. ingplaces. the ones we didn't have time to mm. and thought we'dbo able '0 corne back for. We make ready use of techniquesFar evoking ralher than .howing place. and Iheir vi.iblep'e.en~e. We use ,Io·mo. with black cards to indicate the ladof images. Voice·overs suggest hypotheses, Imagine what wemight have learnt from the image Inat we mighl have takenin this town, Ihe things we saw but did nOI film, tne imageswe would have liked 10 make. The meaning evolves, varies,

d~viem lieu de trava.il."embrayeur de fiction ». Du rail memede son aspect lacunaire. I. narr.ltion ne peur en aucun caspr~tendre etre (omplete. eJle lie peut avancer et 5<'faire quepar trOll.pan';de. par perte. par fragment, par fragmentation ...Now; rec:herchons. a travers ces figures. IImomrer ce que I'onn'3 pas pu mpturer. a reconstituer au refaire vivre ces lieuxm.anqllams. ce que I'on n'a pas eu Ie temps de film~r.persuadesqU'on allait .-evenir,Nnw; n'besitcns pas a utiliser des procedesli~s a I'~vocation des faits plus qu·" leur monstrntion. illempresence visible; nous ralentissons l'image. 1I0USutilisonsdes canons noirs pour marquer Ie manque d'images, Par lavoix off, on emet des hypotb.!ses. on ;magin~ ce que celui·11laUf.it pu noIlS din'. I'image qu'on aurait pu pn'ndre de cetteville.les chose. qU'on a vues mais qll'on n'a pas filmees, lesimages qU'on aurait vonlu f:tire... Le sens b"olue, vane, fluctue.iIdevient Ie n'lais d'une image. brouille fiction et documentaire.De Hussein Chaibane par exemple, Ie directeur de lacin~matheque d'Aden. nous n'avons pas vraiment d'images,Pourtant ret homme, qui nous a sembl~ dans une entreprise dereststance, est une des persollnes qui nous a Ie plus touch';';

durant cevoyage. Nous aurions voulu 3voir plus d'images de luidans I. cinematM'que d'Aden oil sonl conserves aussi bien unfilm indien. Ill' film de Jackie Chan ou des classiques du cinemaa",be, l'essentielCIani de preserver Ies films, de sallveTIa pellkule.On revoil. on cherche mns nns repe",ges, on repertone nosimages. Hussein Ch.ibane en est Ie grand absent. 11n'y a delui que des moments voles. des plans oil il apparajt, oil on Iedevine, ou illraverse rapidement le cadre.l·on 3per~oit S3Silhouette se tenant .. I'<!cart.On Ie recherche dans chaqueplan. on teme de I'isoler. de raJenur I"" moments oil il ne faitque traverser 1',,,,,,1:"'" Par I'bocation ella voixoff, en acceptantde dCioumer le peu d'o!oJemenlSet d'images que nOuS avonspris lors de notr~ visite A la cinem~th~que d·Aden. onrecompose avec un r~l ",.nquani. parfois invisible. absent.I.e film se fait alors dans la collure des plans. dans Ie horschamp, par "'pporl au film qui aurait pu se faire. il devicntce possible. celie ouverture, celie latence.Celie tentalive de detoumer les documents, de raconter leschoses autrement en s'aidant des processus d·brocation. celieconlaminauon de I. fiction et du dccumentaire, celie perte

fiuctuates, roking over from th imase, mixing fiction anddocumentary.For e.ample. we don't really have any images of Hussein(naibane, director of the cinematheque in Aden. and yet he isone of the people who most moved uS during our journey.because he seemed te us to be engaged in a (eal act ofresistance. We would have liked to have more pictures of himIn his cinematheque. whose collection would include an tndianfilm. a Jackie Chan film a, _II as claSSic. efArab cinema. Thegreat priority being to preserve the films, to save the fllm stock.We re·scr ... ned, hunted through our location flims. classifiedou, Images. Hussein Cnaibane is the sreat absent ....Allwe have ofllim a... stelen moments. shots where he appears.where you know he's presen~ where he flits through the frame,whe'e you s... his silhouette to one side. We looked for him infNeryshot, tried to isolate him. to .Iow down the moments wherehe just moves throug~ the image. Using fNocation and voice.()\Iers.allowingourselves to reuse the few elements we had takenwhen Wf! visited Ihe cinematheque in Aden. Wf! negotiated witha missing re.lity. a reality that WaSinviSible,absenL

The film was thus made by splicing together shot. and fromwhat was off·camera, in relation to the mm that could havebeen made. It became this possibility. this opening, this 1.lency.This attempt to appropriate documents, to say Ihings differentlyusing the proce,ses of evocation, this contamination offictionand documentary, this loss of delimitations. olTe'. us acompensatory freedom in relation to reality.The mm does notpresuppose linearity or continuity. The subject Is not complete.the beholder i. not all·powerful.Consequently.we are Ie.. inhibited bythose fears of "discoursesabout" and "visions of." There is no longer" performativediscourse. a "penetrative" gaze that claims to know,to inlerp,et.We are wandering in search of ourselves. of our inscriptionher. and now.

,

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Latency points out possible gestures. traces, reminiscencesthat become spectral and haunt photographs, mIllS, documentsf.lse or t",e.Being there. today. means being prepared to live with ghosts,seeking t~em ou" feeding them.

des delimitations. est pour nous une prise de libertecompomsatoire par rapporta la re.lite. I.e film ne suppose pasalor. de tinea rite. de continuite, Je sujet n'est pas plein, Ieregardant n'est pas tout puissant.Du coup. on s'embamso;e moins de 1. peur du discou"l sur,du regard sur. Ce n'est plus un discours performant. un regard« perfor:lllt 10. qui pretend savoir, interpr~ter. C'est une erran<:eit I" recherche de nous·memes. de notre inscription ici etmaintenanL

La laten<:e nous poinle COmme des pos,ibles en gestation.d .... trae es. des reminiscences qui deviennent fantomatiqUel;el hantent les photographies. les film,. Ie. vrais ou fauxdocuments. ~IrClao aujourd 'hui. ,'est accepter de "';VIe avecses Iantomes.Jes rechercher,les "ourrir.Etre honte. c'est refuser ]'~tat mecanique.la machine. c'estrcfuser de sombrer dans Ic cynisme, dans I'acceptation desim.s es et des rea lites. dans un present continuoTraditionneJlement. I.latence se definit comme I'etat de ce quiexiste de monil:re non apparente m.is qui peUI II toul moment

"Reing haunted means refusing the mechanical stale, themachine; means refusing to lapse into cynicism. acceptingimages and realities within a continuous present.Traditionally, latency is defined as Ihe state ofthal which e.istsbut is not apparent. and which can make ilself manirest at anymoment; it is the time that goes by between the stimulus andthe response. The latent image is the invisible image of animprinted surface that has not yet been developed.To this can also be added the idea of the "dormant." of sluml>er.like something that is asleep and might possibly wake up.!"lFor us, latency i. being there even if you don't see me; it isnece-ssiry, beyond the evidence.NtIt is the reminiscence of an image. of knowledge that lives withus buI is difficult to grasp. This apprehension is what we findimportant. both in its failure and in its quest ta be ~mbodiedin images. This gesture impels us to try to Ihink and produceour images outside a flux. to keep questioning their necessity,their existence, their involvement in the world we live in. in ourpractice of video and photography.

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se rnanifester, c'e't Ie temps ecoule entre Ie stimulus et lareponse correspondante. 1:image latente. c'esl I'imageinvisible d'une surface impressiOlmee qui n'es t pas enc<)redkeloppee ...S'ajoute ~galemen( l'idee de « dormant ~, de I·endormis·sement. commc quelque chose qui sommeille el quipourra;1 peuI~tre se reveiller t"l.Pour ncus. la latence. c'est etr....l~ rneme si tu ne me voispas. c'esl I" neeeeene au·dela de l'evidence I'll.C'esl 1& reminiscence d'une image. d'un savoir qui noushabile ma;s qu>il est difficile de s"isir. Cette saisie est cellequi nouS semble ;mportante dans sa Iioillite comme dans Saqloele'" s'incarner en images. Ce gesle nouS pousse a essayerde r~nechjr et 11 produire nos images hors d'un nux. ainterroger constamment leur neressile. leur existence. leurimplication dans Ie monde ou nous vivons. dans notrepratique de la video ou de la photographie.

Tout au long de notre recherche. un cerl:!in rapport iliamemoire. a la preservation de celle·ci est ccnfronte 3 une

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Throughout our research. a certain relation to memory, tothe preservation thereof, is confronted with an experience Intim~ that does not necessarily try to make a mark, to endure.At Sana'a we went to a cemetery wh~re the tombs h3d n~ithernames nor images but were just stones; a big one and a smallerone far the head, one for the body. Th~y are placed side by sidein a long tOW.

Our dogged attempt to make images, ta bear witness, to filmthe search for our stolen foImsometimes made uS feel a kindof disparity and ralsed questions about our relation to time, tothe trace.In the seq at Sana'a, we made a troubling discovery. tn th"sc"'p merchants' corner. we came across these 11ns. big roundtins lust like the ones developing laboratories give us for keepingour film stack. These tins had holes in. had been !fansformedinto sieves. Had aur print been stolen because of its container.rather than for its contents; for the Iins rather than for the mmlRut al the end. there was another surprising event ... A yearafter the print was lost in Yemen, we received a yellow envelope.The Lebanese p<llice force had sent us thr~e sequences that

experience temporelle qui tie cherche plus forcl:ment As'inscrire, i perdurer.A $3na'a. ncus ...isitons un cimetiere ou les tombes ne ponenlni noms. ni images. ce sont juste des pierres, une grosse. uneplus petite. une pour I. tete. une pour lecorps. Elle. sontplades les unes acx col~ des .ulres dans une longue enfibde,Notreobstination ~ f.lire image. ~ ihnoigner. ;, fihner fa recherchede notre film vole.nous filitparfols ressentir un certain decaJageet interroge notre rapport ~ I" lemporalile.lla trace,Dans Jesouk de San.'a, nOus faisons une decouverte qui noustrouble. Dans Ie coln des ferrailleur.;, nous tombons sur desbOiles en fer blanc, de grandes boiles circulaires quiressemblent ~ s'y meprendre aux balles que les laboratoiresde developpemenl nOns donnent pour preServCTla pellkulede nos films. Les boiles en rer blanc sont ici ucuees eltr.msform~es en passoire. Notre copie aurail·elle etl: vol.....pour son conlen.nt plutol que pour son conlenu, pour lesbones en fer blanc plutol que pour I. pel~cul~?Mais un autre fait nous surprendra. Un an .pres I. perte deIa topie au Yemen ocus recevons une enveloppe jaune. La

Siino", generale libanaise nous renvoie trois plans coupes parla censure avant I. sortie du film au Lib"n. b'O;S plans quimanqu.ient.'! fa copie ~i"'" au Yemen.Aujourd'hui, il ne nous reste plus de la <opie du film perdueemre Aden et Sana'. que ces bouls de film, p3radoxalementsauv~ par la censure libanaise que nous d6cidons de montreri la fin du documentaire.

En continuant .. travail1er sur L<film pmJ" au lend~maindu /I seplembre 2001. nous revendiquons en quelque ""rtedans celie eoperience l'asped anecdotique de noUe red1ercl1e.l:an.rnotique est glmr!-ralernemper~ comme element mineurou pj!joratif, quelque chose qlli n'est pas fOICement a mettreen valeur mais plutotl combilttre. Mais noUS pouvons peut-em, repenser l'anecdotique dans une nouvelle perspective. Sinous revenonS i son etymologie. i] appara;t plutot commeune chose inedile, coe chose tenue secr~te. e'en une mprnreavec une cerurne mnception de I'histoire par laquclle le pointde vue se deplace vers la vie privee, vers des fails emprunt~1ce qU'on poumlit appelcr <cIapetite histoire ...

" "had been cut by the CenSOrsbefore the film's refease in Ll'banon;three sequences that were mi,slng from tfle prinl sent to Yemen.Today, these th,,,,, bits offllm are ali that is left of the copy ofthe film lost between Aden and Sana'a, paradoxically saved bythe Lebanese censers that we decided to show at the end ofthe documentary.

Hislory, a pretext for Illustrating something else, but work thaIcould be done on sensation, on the reappropriation of events.By relating a personal event. .n event in our life. "a secretthing," we are not trying to choose a sociological subject, a"great cause" with cI.ims to objectivity, to historical truth. Weare rejecting the spectacular. but also generali!MItion.by comingback to wo,k on a human, perlion.1 scale - the scale of oureveryday experience, What we show in the film is a specificsearch thai concerns a specific, pe .. onal e.perience, Ihepossibility of continuing to exist here and now. in spite of it all.On the other hand. given the need to k""p trying to tell Ihestory. and to confront the unimaginable reality of humanviolence and barbarity. ane<:dotal r~Hection becomn a r~ala(tof apprehending, In "The Lost Film" it is not ane<:dotes thatInte,~st us, but the actual idea aftne anecdotal. To .ssert theanecdotal here is to prove that we uist. that we will not beannihilated by the weight of our history; it is t<)develop alocalised, historiclsed place of work that reHecls productionsof meaning, a story whose telling can never be e.hausted.in which the real is elusive.

Bycontinuing to work on "The Lost Film"afi.r S~ptembef 11,2001. we we,e in a sense asserting the anecdotal nature of oursearch.The ane<:dotalis gener>lly seen as a minor element. something~u probably wouldn't emphasi.e buI would try to playdown.The word is usually pejorative. But perhaps we should think ofthe anecdotal in a new perspective, If we come b.ck to ilsetymology, it willbe s""n more as something novel. somethingkepi secret, 3 break with a certain conception of history in whichthe viewpoint is displ.ced towa,d, private life, towards eventsborrowed from what one could call "minor events."For I,IS,the anecdotal is not necess.rlly metaphorical, but israther symptomatiC. It is not minor history trying 10 refle<:t

Pour nous. l'anecdotique n' ... 1pas forcemem metaphorique,mais plut6t symptomatique, Ce n'",t pas une petite histoirequi tente de refl~ter la gr:Inde. un pri't&l.e a I'illustration dequelque chose d'autre mais un trav:lil qui pourrail se faireautour de I. sensation. de I. reappropriation d... evenements.En racontam. un fait personnel, un ~venem""t de nOire vic.« UJU.' chose secrete ". nous n'essayons pas de choisir un sujetsociolog;que. «ill'" grandecause» qui a p~ntion a l'obj!!(tivite,.'Ila~rite historique, NollSrefusons Ie spectaculaire mais aus";la gemkalisation en revenant travaiUer 11 une ,;melle hum.inc.~Ue, ccllede notrequotidiennete. Ceq"e nous monlmllSdans le film. ,· ... t un" recherche spki6que qui concerne uneexpmenre propre..-r.personnelk C'1!:S11a possibiliti' de continuera exister id et maintenant malgr~ tout.D'un autre cate. face a Ia necessM de constamment tenter derun, I'histoire. d'imagincr l'inimaginable de t:. violence hllJlllline"I de I. barbarie. it y a Une r<!elleapprehension , r~flechirfanecdotique. Dans I.e.film perdu. re ne sont pas« les anecdotes.qui nous interessenl mais I'idee m';rne de I'anecdotique.Re~ndiquer lei I'anecdotique ,'est d<'rnontrer qu'on existe,

que nous ne serous pas annihiles par le poids de nOire histoire,c'est en faire un lieu de travail localise. historidse, qui refl<!chilIe<productions de sen s. un recit dont l'enonce ne peut eireepuise, ou Ie reel se derobe.C'est la potentialit,; de s'approprier nOtre histoire cornme si.ce que I'on se fait a nous·meme. On ne permett:lil pas aUlCautres de nous Ie faire. Sil'on estime que I'histoire offideUeCSI<!critc par les v:linqueurs, it exiSierait une autre methode,un autre champ ou domaine non offidel ei sub"",rsif qui """,itarticuli' par l'anecdotique,« Ia chose tenue secrete». Cellc-clviendrait Irouer et pervertir la trame officielle de l'histolre ...Elle devient une position de r~ist:lIlce.

I:anecdotique apparent dans ~ jilm p<rdu fait echo II lalatence, iI ce travail «soutetrain, invisible et parfois memepar>llNe •. La latence serai! I'"mrmation d'une presence elI'anecdotique apparaitrait comme Ie r<!citet Ie deve]oppementde cene presence. A Ull certain rapport ontolosique let pent·eire mime meta physique) ""pond aloTSune position polltique.

"It is the possibility of appropriating our hlstof)'. a. if we did

not .1I0w others to do to us wh>l we do to ourselves. If weconsider that officialhistof)' iswritten b~the victors. then therei, another method, another unofficial and subversive Held ordomain. which i. articulated by the anecdotal, b~"thing, keptsec,e!." This would then cut through and pervert the offiCialstructure of histof)'. It becomes a pOSitionof resistance.

at a time when it is increasingly difficul, to affirm one',individuality a, a vector of thouSht and thus of possibleopposition. increasingly difficult to say "I." to say "I am thisperson here with these conlradktions; I am here and, evenmore Ihan an individual. I am. singular political subject."

The anecdotal element apparent in "The Lost Film" echoeslatency, that "subterranean, invisible and sometimes evenparallel" process of worlc.Latency.then. would be the affirmationof. presence and the anecdotal would be Seen", thestory and the development of that presence. For a givenontological (and perhaps even me'.physical) ",Iation there isa corresponding political position.

All Our work exist< on the frontier of a reality where thequestion of the territory and its delimit.tion (that of al1. Ih.tof personal life). the question of the social body and individualbody in a communilanan society, are constantly being po,ed,

Tout notr~ travail se fonde 11III frontiere d'un re.l ou"" posecontinueUem""t III question du territoire, de sa delimit:otion(celui de t'art. celui de la vie perwnnell.l.la question du corp'social '" du corps individuel don.<une sociele communautlire.dans un temps oil ilest de plus en plus difficile de se po""en individu. vecteu, de la pens~et done de la possibleopposition. de dire. je ~. d~ dire. je .ui, Cel<!tre·l. ave<;<escontradictions. ie ,uis 1.1. plu. encore qU'un individu, je suisun sujel politique singulier. ~

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aimed by young women playing on a beach. The encounterbetween tho Insomni. of the man with the ~sh and the .oldlerlormented by bad dreams. between the silence of aquariumsand the agilalion of hands from which a story is wrested. Thefluttering wings of butterflies drunk with lamplight and word.fur colours repeated by Senegalese children until they lose thei.meaning. The uncanny and comic starting of an old man dozin~off to a b.ckground oflouri'15 going from chapel to chapel. Aman', whistling reproducing the sound ofTomahawk missilesf.lling on the town. An unpronounceable ,entence. a young